Former Clippers guard Lou Williams shared a wild reason why Los Angeles didn’t win the 2020 NBA Championship while appearing on a recent episode of Trae Young’s From The Point podcast.
The Clippers, title favorites at the start of the 2020 season, were eliminated by the Nuggets after blowing a 3–1 series lead in the Western Conference Semifinals.
The three-time NBA Sixth Man of the Year stated that the COVID-19 pandemic that season, which led to the NBA playing games in isolation at Walt Disney World, impacted the mindset and drive of his former club.
“We didn’t even want to go,” said Williams. “Mentally, we came into it without the right mindset to finish the job. We didn’t even want to be there and I think once we got there, we were in it.”
Lou Williams talking about his best chance to win was with the Clippers bubble team. He says, “We started to hear the rumblings that nobody is going to respect this chip so we kind of just took our foot off the gas”
— Jacob 🦴 (@Jacobtheclipper) November 13, 2023
This was our BEST chance man, hurts to hear it 💔 pic.twitter.com/lPcmPGvtsk
“I think I was in the ‘bubble’ for 97 days and on day 67, I was like let’s get out of here,” Williams continued. “Mentally, we were not in it for the long game. We didn’t really see the pot of gold at the end of it. We started to hear the rumblings that nobody is going to respect this ‘chip so we kind of just took our foot off the gas.”
The NBA setup based in Bay Lake, Fla., which became known as “the bubble,” was played without fans, and several players opted out due to health concerns.
Playing under those conditions, many fans and media alike believed that the team that won it all that season shouldn’t be labeled an NBA champion.
Williams making this admission is disappointing for Clippers fans who have never witnessed their team win an NBA title.
